Electrical Engineering

Before Silicon Valley, before the Internet, before the computer, there
were electrical engineersengineers who researched and developed all things
electrical and electronic. There was no question about who they were or what
they did. If it had to do with electricity or electronics, electrical
engineers probably had something to do with it.

But with the explosion of the high-tech industry, the definition of what
it means to be an electrical engineer has expanded. Today's
electrical engineer could be working for a law firm in Boston, a bank on
Wall Street, or a manufacturing plant in Texas or California.

And the growth of this field shows no signs of slowing. Despite the
economic downturn, electrical engineers are as much in demand as ever. With
computers, networking and systems playing key roles in the operations of
virtually all businesses today, electrical engineers can plan on being
diligently pursued for years to come.

All companies are looking for electrical and computer
engineers, says Nancy Evans, director of the Engineering Career
Assistance Center for the College of Engineering at University of Texas,
Austin. It doesn't matter what your business is.

The Rise of the Computer

In the future not only will it be harder to distinguish electrical
engineering from its counterparts, it will be harder to limit electrical
engineering majors to careers in the industry. As the high-tech
industry becomes more entrenched in the U.S. economy, you're going to see
people with skills that are a part of that industry become more popular in
non-technical-related firms, says Mark Albertson, the American
Electronics Association (AEA)'s senior vice president for California and
the Western United States.

Electrical engineering students who have passed through MIT illustrate just
that, says Anne Hunter, administrator of undergraduate and master's of
engineering programs in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT,
adding that about 25% of MIT electrical engineering graduates head for Wall
Street each year, going to companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley
Dean Witter, Deutsche Bank and others.

They are going to New York City to work in investment banking, mergers
and acquisitions, Wall Street trading, things like that, she says.
Not as technical support but for those companies' main lines of
business.

They have these quantitative problem-solving skills that are quite
adaptable, Hunter adds.

Jim Kirtley, director, vice president and chief scientist of SatCon
Technology Corporation in Cambridge, Mass., and professor of electrical
engineering at MIT, agrees. It is becoming difficult to [hire] good
engineers coming out of universities, Kirtley says. Wall Street
is exerting a very strong pull on graduates with quantitative skills.

But, Hunter says, Wall Street is not the only place trying to snag the top
electrical engineers. We send a lot of students on for Ph.D.s, to med
school and to law school, she says.

I see engineering becoming more of a gateway to other professional
schools, forecasts Linda Katehi, associate dean for academic affairs
and a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor.

Referring to the movement toward a more well-rounded education for engineers
that is sweeping the nation right now, Katehi says that although it
limits our capability of including more technology courses [in our
engineering program], it gives us an opportunity to develop a degree that
is broader.

This means, people can go into law with engineering, they can go to
medical school with engineering, they can go to business school with
engineering, she says.

Sharpen Those Skills

Your quantitative skills will help, but what else is going to help you land
the job of your dreams?

Knowing how to work in global groups, according to Katehi. [Graduates]
will need to understand how to work in global groups, she says.
Electrical engineers will get together to design something, but that
doesn't mean the whole group will be in the same place.

Jim Lucy, chief editor of both CEE News and Electrical Wholesaling, also
hints at the idea of global project collaboration. In the future,
[electrical engineers] will be getting a lot more of their information from
the Internet, whether they're just doing research or collaborating on
projects with people out in the field.

Computers are an everyday part of the workplace and it's just going to
get more and more so, Lucy adds. [Electrical engineers] will be
tracking a particular product they may have designed with the people out in
the field, and it will all be conducted using PalmPilots. They will have a
lot more instantaneous communication via computer. They will send their
designs electronically.

It will all be digitized, he says.

And the Internet will continue to increase in value and convenience for
engineering students seeking advanced degrees.

About half of the students enrolled in our master's-level courses are
in industry, taking classes over video or online, says Bruce Wooley,
chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering and a professor of
electrical engineering at Berkeley, adding that although such classes have
been around for over 40 years, only recently have they been implemented
online.

Katehi, too, recognizes the role computer technology and the Internet will
play in the education of electrical engineers in the future. People
will be able to do virtual experiments over the Web, she says.

Graphics and visualization are changing the field drastically.
In addition to improving your collaborative skills and becoming technically
savvy, Katehi stresses the importance of knowing the basics. The
average right now is for an electrical engineer to have seven different
jobs throughout his or her career, she says. They need to have
enough background to be able to change topics multiple times.

John Steadman, vice president for career activities on the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers' (IEEE) USA Board of Directors, is quick
to agree. He believes students should pay as much attention as they
can to electronic fundamental concepts. This, he says, will help them
keep up with ongoing trends and allow them the flexibility of career
changes.

But there is more to success than having those technical skills down pat.
Students should be well-rounded, says Albertson. Given the competitive
nature of the high-tech industry, any graduates that have solid business
skills in addition to good technical skills will probably do better than
most.

While diversification is still important and companies do look for
specialty technical skills, having a broad base of knowledge will give
candidates a more significant edge in the future, he adds.

Where's the Action?

Electrical engineering covers a wide range of areas in the high-tech
sector. A lot of the areas which are coming up [require a knowledge
of] other fields, Katehi says, referring to the more interdisciplinary
shape electrical engineering will take in the future.

Take for example, biomedical engineering. Bruce Wooley, chairman of the
Department of Electrical Engineering and a professor of electrical
engineering at Berkeley, hints at the possibilities that lie before
electrical engineers in biology, trying to understand the body as a system.
The core of electrical engineering is the ability to process signals
and information, he says. Extending that signal processing into
other domains will be characteristic [of the future].

Another example is nanotechnology, manipulating and replicating materials
on a molecular scale, which requires the pooled resources of chemists and
electrical engineers.

And there will be plenty of opportunities and expansion in electrical
engineering itself. Wireless continues to be a buzzword for the
telecommunications industry, and with optical networks stretching across
the country and around the world, the industry shows little sign of
slowing.

We're seeing a situation beginning to develop now where many of the
large, established high-tech firms are building important market niches in
the telecommunications area, Albertson says. That is going to
be a very important growth trend as we move more into this decade.

Many expect optics (the use of thin strands of glass to carry information
by lasers) and photonics (capturing photonic energy to transmit information
by light), both important facets of telecommunications technology, to thrive
in the years to come.

Says Steadman, who is also head of the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at the University of Wyoming, We will hopefully see the
development of true optical switching and optical repeating, so that
bandwidths can be maintained over larger distances and with large
networks.

Job Hunting

As good as the job market is for electrical engineers, don't expect jobs to
materialize out of nowhere. Hiring is down nationwide, which means
everyoneeven the electrical engineeris feeling the heat.

For example, in early August Lucent Technologies announced it would cut
about 15,000 jobs, bringing its employment numbers down from 155,000 a year
ago, to about 60,000. ADC Telecommunications Inc. has cut almost 10,000
jobs and Global Crossing Ltd. has cut about 2,000-15% of its work force.

While Albertson admits that hiring has not been as robust in 2001 and
unemployment will probably rise, he says, Companies are still hiring
for key technical positionsthat's necessary no matter what the economy is
like because the strength of a company's future is in its innovative
technology products.

AEA's report, Cyberstates 2001: A State-By-State Overview of the
High-Technology Industry, appears to support his beliefs. According to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, a main source for Cyberstates, electrical
engineers' 1.1% unemployment rate in 2000 was the second lowest for all
high-tech occupations examined, extremely low compared to the national
average of 4.3%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts a 26% growth rate in the number of
electrical and electronic engineers employed in high-tech occupations from
1998 to 2008.

And, in a nationwide job search conducted in mid-August on America's Job
Bank, 5,258 positions were listed for electrical engineers, second only to computer
engineers of systems software (7,400). This is compared to 100 for
agricultural engineers, 961 for aerospace engineers, and 4,241 for
mechanical engineers.

Where to?

Where do you have the best chance of landing your dream job? In a
state-by-state search for electrical engineering jobs on America's Job
Bank, California and Texas offer the most opportunity, and the number
of job openings in California (1,040) is more than double those of Texas
(409).

Information from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics
supports these findings, with data showing that more than one-third of all
electrical and electronic engineers have jobs in California, Texas, New
York and New Jersey.

Lucy admits that certain parts of the country might be more eager for
electrical engineers than others, namely Florida, Texas, California and the
Rocky Mountain states, but believes that if you're prepared, have the basic
skills and want to work, you won't have a problem landing that job and
keeping it.

He adds, For a person with the right background, I can't imagine that
there won't be good opportunities basically anywhere.